Methods and apparatus of the above type are generally known and are described, for example, in the following German Patent Publications: (DE) 3,528,634 Al, (DE) 3,614,984 Al, and (DE) 3,806,361 Cl. The articles to be packaged are first folded several times with the help of rollers and suction air and then packaged, whereby the articles may additionally be rotated or turned over.
German Patent Publication 1,246,767 (Kuehne) discloses a folding and collecting mechanism for rotary printing machines in which the components which control the folding knives are moving uniformly on circular paths, whereby wear and tear causing motions are avoided and those mass accelerations and decelerations which reduce output are minimized or possibly avoided. Gear meshing play and bearing play is to be minimized to increase the folding precision. For this purpose Kuehne provides a folding cylinder with a circumference suitable to carry three sheets to be folded. The cylinder carries folding grooves and inside the cylinder there is a folding knife carrier with three folding knives. The knife carrier rotates eccentrically in the cylinder, whereby the folding knives are mounted on rotatable spindles to control the motion of the folding knives by planetary gears which revolve around a sun gear that is drivable and stoppable. Crank drives are also shown.
The working speed of the known folding machines is relatively high, but it is not high enough in many instances. Especially since components other than the folding components of the known production machines could be run with a higher hourly output, the folding components of a production line form a bottleneck that substantially affects the working speed of the entire production line.